Australia's Science Forum

I will be getting used to the notion of returning to work - YAY! My daughter will be off being "Super-Indigenous-Girl" at Macquarie Uni, and then QLD Parliament, so I'll have a lot of time to do all those things I promised myself I'd do before returning to work. You know - making curtains,...

Naturally, all of what I say relates to when I'm actually at work, but my replacement does the same thing, which is.... I hold my own PO book, and I do all the ordering. After all, I know what needs replacing, what broke during the year, and what we didn't have enough of last time we did Experiment ...

Hotplate, hotplate, hotplate - like everyone else said

Hey Guys,

Glitterbug is from Southern Biological, and the prac ideas come from them. I bought a set which had both powder and the hand cream, and a UV light. It's very effective.

Sounds like a soon-to-be-extinct school! KA-BOOM!

Pretty sure a lot of those fossil dig kits that you can buy are a very light mix of Plaster of Paris, with lots of sand, or even chalk. You really just need barely enough P-o-P to bind the chalk or sand together. Depends how long you'd like the little cherubs to be digging for

Hey Tigger, We used to do an experiment that boiled leaves, but it was mostly to do with determining the starch content of leaves. Then we either used variegated leaves, or covered some leaves with foil over half the leaf etc to look at production of sugars/starch in leaves. If that is what your tea...

Hammer - the only way!

Based on the formula: stress x cost of cleaning agent x time taken to clean tubes versus cost of new test tubes = hammer

At the end of term when teachers say "Let's do something FUN with the juniors" (and feeding them to the crocodiles is somehow frowned upon :crazy: ) I hand out dishwashing detergent, and straws, and chux. We have The Great Bubble Challenge - where the kids have to blow bubble domes inside ...

Well yes, I had set one up. However the "Cup your hand over the thistle funnel" part never works first time. I have been know to blow into the funnel and get the flow started. Face it - it's limewater, not NaOH.

But as far as producing good limewater goes - its a winner

Hey we do it every year - but only with Seniors. Tips: Overheating USA pennies will cause them to melt, because an American 1c piece is actually a copper sandwich, with a lead centre. Foreign Asian coins, or PNG 1 toea pieces work well. Make sure you check the tongs, and remove any that work like Wo...

There's all sorts of "edible rocks" recipes out there - eg Rocky Road is a good "conglomerate". Honeycomb is a wonderful lava/pumice stone imitation, but harder to make and hotter, with tinies in mind, and slices like caramel slice are good sedimentary rock demos.

I buy the tiny takeaway sauce containers from Star Packaging (which used to be Daltons). They have lids, so I can measure out tiny amounts, but up to 25mL, so that I can pre-measure little amounts of liquids or powders for Junior experiments.

Consider this a virtual acceptance! I'd love to come, but I think the drive might tire me out!

Have fun.

I've done risk phrases with a letter, and then in the folder of mini MSDS's that I send out to the teacher I list what the unknowns are on a piece of paper at the back of the folder. That way, presumably, blind Freddy could find the relevant info as required.

I've had batches in both of those colours. And seriously, what does it matter as long as the little cherubs have the same start point?

Thanks for the photos, btw.

And if you chose aluminium as your original container the statement Keep only in original container would then be incorrect as it would corrode and release flammable hydrogen. At the risk of too many smilies: :cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy: :cheesy: Is it just me, or was that a hilarious answer? I wonde...

Um-aaahhh. Too many smiley icons! Oooh. Tsk tsk.
(Note the absence of any smiley icons, except of course, the one in my signature block)

Again...a bunch of rules written FOR labbies by people who are NOT labbies, and have no idea what we do. But seriously, most of the GHS rules out there are for bigger end users than the average school laboratory. Those rules are for mines, and other industrial chemical users, and I'll bet even they ...

So here I am at home, trying to participate in the world I left behind when I commenced my Cancer journey, by reading and commenting on Chemtalk when all of a sudden.....I reply to two different, separate topics and I get a rude message in red that says "You cannot post another reply so soon af...